Company Profile

Jhpiego is an international, non-profit health organization affiliated with the John Hopkins University.  For 50 years and over and in over 155 countries, Jhpiego has worked to prevent the needless deaths of women and their families. Jhpiego works with health experts, governments and community leaders to provide high-quality health care for their people. Jhpiego develops strategies to help countries care for themselves by training competent health care workers, strengthening health systems and improving delivery of care. Jhpiego designs innovative, effective and low-cost health care solutions to ensure a level of care for women and their families. These practical, evidence-based interventions are breaking down barriers to high-quality health care for the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Job Description

• Position : Senior Technical Advisor for Immunizations
• Reports to: Technical Director
• Job Location : Accra, Ghana
• Duration: 12 months, with potential extension depending on funding availability

Job Overview

Jhpiego is seeking a Senior Advisor to provide technical leadership for the COVID-19 response in Ghana. Under the USAID-funded RISE project, Jhpiego is supporting Ghana Health Services (GHS) to prevent, detect and respond to COVID-19. A significant focus of our work is accelerating and strengthening the technical and operational capacity of GHS’s local healthcare workers to deliver high quality COVID-19 vaccination services. This includes the provision of technical assistance around COVID vaccination campaign preparedness activities, campaign implementation, and post campaign monitoring and evaluation of performance. The Senior Advisor will guide the team on where to prioritize resource allocation toward the implementation of high quality, safe and effective vaccination activities with an aim to reduce the impact of the pandemic on Ghana’s Health System and the communities.

The Senior Advisor will be responsible for ensuring technical and operational rigor in the planning and scaled execution of COVID-19 vaccination campaign activities being implemented at the national, regional, district and facility level. This includes providing technical assistance towards ensuring equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines, ensuring access to the most vulnerable communities in the 7 regions RISE is supporting, which involves ensuring improved coordination and communication amongst the regional, district and sub-district teams as well as frontline health workers. Additionally, liaising regularly with GHS Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI), USAID/Ghana, and other partners regarding technical strategy, monitoring and evaluation of project milestones and targets. The Senior Technical Advisor for Immunizations will work closely with the National EPI team in COVID-19 vaccination programme (Covax) and provide technical assistance towards updating of the National Vaccine Deployment plans, Regional and District level micro-plans and participating in relevant technical working groups.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership, guidance and support for the design, management, and implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign activities
• Collaborate with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to support the national COVID-19 vaccination program, in accordance with global and national standards and in alignment with national policies and strategies
• Support Ghana Health Services authorities to identify solutions for implementation challenges through regular participation in national vaccination TWGs including NITAG, NTCC and COVID-19 EOC
• Ensure project team coordinates effectively with government and other partners at national, regional and district levels
• Build close working relationships with other immunization partners and participate in stakeholder meetings and deliver presentations, as needed
• In collaboration with project team, provide technical inputs on the project workplan for scope, schedule, and projected budget expenses
• Ensure that the project activities are meeting client and stakeholder expectations and that implementation is on time and according to budget
• Ensure high-quality training of relevant vaccination campaign stakeholders and frontline health workers; provide mentorship support to the Jhpiego COVID-19 vaccination campaign support staff, including through a Community of Practice (COP) and facilitation of case discussions, as appropriate
• Actively maintain current knowledge of COVID-19, vaccination standards and guidelines, and any emerging technical innovations and advances.
• Liaise with the global RISE TA team and Jhpiego partners to ensure that approaches, training tools, job aids, and other approaches are in line with guidance from the global technical secretariat and adapted to Ghana’s context. 
• Mentor, support, supervise, and manage a team of highly qualified technical staff and align their efforts in concert with program goals to ensure rapid and sustainable results.
• Contribute to regular reporting to USAID on project progress; coordinate with the RISE MEL team to ensure data collection and reporting tools are implemented consistently
• Provide technical contributions of potential subgrantees/subcontractors, including defining scopes of work in coordination with project team
• Comply with Jhpiego and JHU operational policies and regulations
• Other duties, as assigned

Required Skills or Experience

• Experience planning and working in public health programs and Ghana’s Immunization Programme
• Demonstrated experience working with USAID and other donors
• An undergraduate Clinical degree in nursing or medicine (MBChB or BSc Nursing); post-graduate training and experience in vaccine programs and/or in Emergency Medicine /Critical Care/Infectious Diseases preferred
• Strong knowledge and experience with data use for decision making
• Experience in disease outbreak response and familiarity with IHR (2005) is an advantage
• Experience in vaccination campaign implementation for outbreak response and other routine immunization activities
• Familiarity with the Ghana Health Services and demonstrated ability to collaborate with government officials (at all levels) to strengthen program implementation
• Demonstrated ability in working and collaborating with local and international partner organizations
• Excellent skills in program decision making, facilitation, team building and coordination
• Excellent writing and communications skills, including demonstrated technical writing skills for publication
• Fluency in English
• Ability to work effectively with diverse international teams and willingness to learn and empower others
• Ability to work in a complex environment with multiple tasks, short deadlines and pressure to perform
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently to implementation regions, districts, and health facilities including COVID-19 vaccination outreach sites
• References will be required